This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Thursday, 14 August 2014

'Islam', 'Muslim' & 'Shari'ah' as Understood from the Qur'an

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ
ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is written by Shaykh Abdul Ghafoor bin Abdul
Raheem.

Throughout the Qur’an, the term ‘islam’, as well as
its derivatives such as ‘aslama’, ‘aslamu’, ‘muslim’, ‘muslimun’
and such, has been used in the literal sense of ‘submission to God’. In this sense, there are two meaning elements
involved: belief in one God and moulding one’s life in the light of this belief
that is, living righteously.

The Qur’an does not use the term ‘islam’ and its
derivatives in an institutionalised sense, meaning the religion propagated by
the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) with its specific belief system and law.

This is why the Qur’an describes past prophets such as
Ibrahim (a.s.), Musa (a.s.) and ‘Isa (a.s.) and their
followers as muslimun, ‘those who submitted to God’, that is, they
believed in one God and lived righteously. For example:

Abraham was not a Jew nor
yet a Christian, but he was true in faith and bowed his will to Allah's (which
is Islam) and he joined not gods with Allah. (Surah Ali ‘Imran:67)

Ibrahim (a.s.) is described as ‘being a muslim’, ‘kana
musliman’, that is, ‘having surrendered to God’.

And:

When Jesus found unbelief
on their part, he said, “Who will be my helpers to (the work of)
Allah?" Said the disciples, “We are
Allah's helpers we believe in Allah and do thou bear witness that we are
Muslims.” (Surah Ali ‘Imran:52)

The disciples of ‘Isa (a.s.) are reported as having
said, “Be witness that we are muslimun,” “ishhad bi anna muslimun”,
that is, “we have surrendered ourselves unto God.”

In highlighting the importance of understanding the meaning
of religious terms used in the Qur’an in its proper Qur’anic context without
confusing their meanings with later ideological developments they accrued, Shaykh
Muhammad Asad (r.a.), a modern translator and exegete of the Qur’an,
stated in The Message, “One must be aware of rendering, in each and every case,
the religious terms used in the Qur’an in the sense which they have acquired
after Islam had become ‘institutionalised’ into a definite set of laws, tenets
and practices. However legitimate this ‘institutionalisation’
may be in the context of Islamic religious history, it is obvious that the
Qur’an cannot be correctly understood if we read it merely in the light of
later ideological developments, losing sight of its original purport and the
meaning which it had – and was intended to have – for the people who first
heard it from the lips of the Prophet (s.a.w.) himself. For instance, when the contemporaries of the
Prophet (s.a.w.) heard the words ‘islam’ and ‘muslim’,
they understood them as denoting ‘man’s self-surrender to God’, and ‘one who
surrenders himself to God’, without limiting these terms to any specific
community or denomination.”

On the usage of the term ‘islam’ in the Qur’an, it
was pointed out that the Qur’an uses the term ‘islam’ in the literal and
non-institutionalised sense of ‘self-submission to God’ which meant belief in
Him and living a righteous living. Now,
in the light of this, we need to have a close look at two key Qur’anic verses
in which the term ‘islam’ occurs in order to determine their meanings.

The Religion before Allah
is Islam (submission to His will)... (Surah Ali ‘Imran:19)

And the second is verse:

If anyone desires a
religion other than Islam (submission to Allah) never will it be accepted of
him... (Surah Ali ‘Imran:85)

Commonly, these two verses are interpreted to mean, ‘the
only religion in the Sight of God is Islam’ and ‘He who seeks a religion other
than [the religion of] Islam, it will never be accepted from him’. In both these translations, the term ‘islam’
has been erroneously interpreted in an institutionalised and a denominative
sense referring to a particular religion, that which the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.)
propagated with its specific system of beliefs and laws. Now, what would be the meaning of these verses
if the term ‘islam’ was interpreted in the sense the Qur’an uses it? But before that one must also have a clear
understanding of the term, ‘diyn’.

Diyn, generally
translated as religion, has three inter-connected meanings in the Qur’an:
‘worship’, ‘acts of worship’ and ‘judgement and recompense’, the end result of
committing or omitting the ‘acts of worship’. The key idea underlying ‘worship’ is
‘obedience’. The believer, through acts
of worship, ‘obeys’ God, that is, the believer relates to God and makes
themselves conscious of God. Now keeping
this in mind, as well as the meaning of islam as ‘self-submission to
God’, the Surah Ali ‘Imran:19 would mean, ‘the only acceptable way to worship
and obey God is through self-submission to Him’; similarly Surah Ali ‘Imran:85
would mean, ‘he who seeks to worship God and obey Him except by surrendering
himself to Him, it will not be accepted from him’.

In both cases, the meaning comes to this: the way to relate
to God and connect with Him is through belief in Him and doing good to oneself
and others. In commenting on Surah Ali
‘Imran:19 and emphasising the non-institutionalised meaning of islam, Shaykh
Muhammad Rashid Ridha, who edited, published and commented on the voluminous,
though unfinished exegesis of the Qur’an by Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abduh, a modern
exegete and, perhaps, the most outstanding of modern Muslim thinkers, explained
that anyone who is a monotheist and does good works with sincerity would,
according to the Qur’an, be qualified as a muslim regardless of their
religion, time or place. This was found
in al-Manar, (v.3 p.258.).

Shari’ah is a commonly
heard term, especially, in the context of the Islamisation-of-society debate. It is generally translated as ‘Islamic Law’
and perceived as a set of Divinely Prescribed laws that are not subject to
change. Let us explore the concept of shari’ah.

In its origin, the term ‘shari’ah’ refers to the
gaps and breaches in a river bank through which there is access to water and
hence its literal meaning as a ‘path leading to water’. The Qur’an uses the term ‘shari’ah’ and
its derivatives four times.

Twice, it is used in its verbal form:

The same religion has He Established
for you as that which He Enjoined on Noah - that which We have Sent by
inspiration to thee - and that which We Enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus...
(Surah ash-Shura’:13)

And:

What! have they partners
(in godhead), who have established for them some religion without the
permission of Allah?... (Surah ash-Shura’:21)

Twice, it was as a noun:

…To each among you have We
Prescribed a law and an open way... (Surah al-Ma’idah:48)

And:

Then We Put thee on the
(right) Way of Religion: so follow thou that (Way), and follow not the desires
of those who know not.― (Surah al-Jatsiyah:18)

In its verbal form, shara’a, it means to chalk out
or mark a way to be followed; as a noun, in one instance, the Qur’an uses it as
‘an instance of such marking’ and in the second instance, meaning ‘the marked
way’.

Let us look at this last instance more closely. The Qur’an in Surah
al-Jatsiyah:18 reads: “And finally, We Provided you with a shari’ah – a
way-to-be-followed – by which the purpose [of faith] may be fulfilled”. Imam Qatada ibn Da’ama (r.a.), who died
in 118 AH, gives us the earliest extant definition of shari’ah. He defined it as: ‘The obligatory duties and
the prohibited actions of what was Commanded to be done or to be avoided.’ This is recorded by Imam ath-Thabari (r.a.)
in his Jami’. From this, it is
apparent that the term ‘shari’ah’ refers to the sum total of Qur’anic
laws and principles as they are in the Qur’an.

However, these laws, in general, are not in a form that can
be implemented or acted upon; they need explanations and elaborations. These elaborations were provided first by the
Prophet (s.a.w.) himself and which were later referred to as his sunnah,
that is, his normative behaviour, the documentation of which is known as ahadits.
After the death of the Prophet (s.a.w.),
Muslims further elaborated on the shari’ah laws and principles using, of
course, the Qur’an, the sunnah, and, in addition, the interpretative tools
of ijtihad, independent reasoning, and qiyas, analogy, and the
legitimising tool of ijma’, consensus. This human intellectual endeavour which
roughly was completed in the first three centuries of hijrah, Islam’s
formative period, and culminated in the formulation of fiqh, Islamic law.
With this development, shari’ah
laws and principles were given a concrete form and as a result, shari’ah
came to be used interchangeably with fiqh.

However, it must be borne in mind that shari’ah and fiqh
are not one and the same: shari’ah provided the data, the raw material
for the development of fiqh or Islamic law; fiqh is an
interpretation of shari’ah. While
shari’ah laws and principles are Qur’anic and thus Divine and Immutable,
fiqh or Islamic law is not as it is an outcome of human intellectual
activity carried out within a certain historical and cultural context and thus
mutable and subject to change. And even
though the shari’ah laws and principles are Divine and not subject to
change, they are open to interpretation and re-interpretation.

Like any other text, the shari’ah laws, too, fall
within a certain context, that is, the circumstances or the framework, that
form the setting for the text within which the text can be, and should be,
understood. The shari’ah law
context, broadly speaking, can be categorised into two: firstly what may be
described as the ‘human condition’ and secondly the ‘socio-historical
condition’.

The human condition here refers to that unalterable part of
the human being which is inherent and innate to him; it not based on, or
influenced by, prevalent cultural norms, and thus, the human condition does not
change with time or place. The Qur’an
refers to this:

By the soul, and the
proportion and order Given to it; and its enlightenment as to its wrong and its
right; ― (Surah ash-Shams:7-8)

In Surah ash-Shams:7-8, it states:
“Consider the human self and its formation; it is imbued with immoral doings as
well as (doings driven by) God-consciousness.” In other words, the human being has the
capacity to act as a moral being and do good as well as the capacity to commit
evil and fall into utter immorality. A
large portion of the shari’ah laws, such as those related to religious
rituals and al-halal wa al-haram laws, address this human condition and
aim at creating from the individual, in Qur’anic terminology, a person with taqwa,
that is, a God-conscious person, simply, a morally good person. And, to create such a moral being, as with
other religions, is one of the two main objectives of the Qur’an and Islam. As the human condition referred to above does
not change with time or place, the shari’ah laws related to this
condition are immutable and cannot change.

In addition to the above category of individual-related
laws, some of the shari’ah laws relate to the social sphere and came
within a certain socio-historical context. Even though, their objective was to create a
just and egalitarian society, an objective worth pursuing at all times and in
all places; their ‘forms’ were very much influenced by the existing cultural
and social norms of the day. For
example, we have a look at the Qur’an’s prescription of amputation of limbs for
the offense of theft:

As to the thief, male or
female, cut off his or her hands: a retribution for their deed and exemplary Punishment
from Allah and Allah is Exalted in Power, full of Wisdom. (Surah al-Ma’idah:38)

Amputation was the socially accepted norm current in
society at the time of Revelation. Its
purpose, the Qur’an explains, are threefold: the offender must face the
consequence of their actions and they as well as others must learn from this
wrong-doing. Thus it is there to serve
justice as well as it being a reformative and exemplary exercise.

In the case of these culture-specific shari’ah laws,
the Qur’an emphasises that, what is important is their objective rather that
their forms; for example, the amputation-verse, as well as other hudud related
verses, are immediately followed by the statement that if the offender repents
and reforms, God Forgives them. According
to Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.), whose writings influence many modern day
Salafis and neo-Shari’is, and Imam ibn al-Qayyim (r.a.), Shaykh ibn
Taymiyyah’s (r.a.) foremost pupil, repentance can waive punishment. This is mention in Imam ibn al-Qayyim’s (r.a.)
‘Ilam al-Muwaqi’in.

The culture-specificity of such laws are also indicated by
how the earliest generation of Muslims such as the swahabah and the tabi’in
dealt with these laws. Sayyidina ‘Umar (r.a.),
the second caliph waived amputation in some cases of theft and suspended it in
Year 18 AH due to famine. This is also
recorded in Imam ibn al-Qayyim’s (r.a.) ‘Ilam al-Muwaqi’in. Sayyidina ‘Ali (k.w.), the fourth caliph,
voiced against its implementation in certain circumstances, as recorded in Imam
ash-Shafi’i’s (r.a.) Kitab al-Umm. Sayyidina ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (r.a.),
regarded as the fifth rightly-guided caliph, also waived it in certain cases,
and this is documented in Imam ibn Hazm’s (r.a.) al-Muhallah.

Fiqh seems not to be very
keen to implement amputation as a punishment for theft; it lays down so many
conditions which are almost impossible to fulfill. If this is the case, if these laws are
influenced by the cultural norms of the day, then their forms cannot be
regarded as immutable; they can be interpreted and given new forms in order to
achieve their objectives – fairness, justice and equality.